


At the End of the Day

by Juniper200



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Genre: Domesticity, F/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-04
Updated: 2013-09-04
Packaged: 2017-12-25 13:53:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/953879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Juniper200/pseuds/Juniper200
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Turners discuss their respective days.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At the End of the Day

William Turner was frustrated. He’d had no urgent tasks calling for his attention after his watch had ended late in the afternoon, so he’d come below to the captain’s quarters. He had been diligently studying from a treatise on navigation Jack had lent him. Pirate blood or no, the years Will might have spent learning his way around the sea had been spent on land pounding iron into swords.

“Not that we don’t need, love and appreciate the swords, luv,” Jack had said as he pulled the book from the cupboard. “But I wager a man like you will want to know where he’s going in the world.”

So Will devoted his spare hours to studying the star charts and committing the lesser constellations to memory. Granted, some of the ciphering in the later parts was a trial, but he refused to let a pack of mere numbers stop him.

His reading had been going well, but the Caribbean twilight was short, and the single candle he’d lit was failing against the growing darkness. Fear of fire kept him from lighting more in the candleabra all over the cabin – the way they slid across surfaces in high seas convinced him they’d accidentally burn the ship one day – and he was too comfortable in his chair to get up and light the oil sconces on the wall. So he leaned closer over the book and candle, wringing the last moments of light from the day.

“I understand reading with so little light will ruin your eyes,” Elizabeth said, drawing closing the door behind her.

Will smiled but didn’t look up from his book. He’d nearly finished the page.

She leaned over the back of the chair, resting her chin on his left shoulder and snaking her arm over his right to close the book. “Really, you stubborn man. They’re fine eyes and I’d hate to see them ruined.” She pressed a line of kisses from his jaw to the corner of his eye. “This is for your own good.”

“It is?” He put on an aggreived tone as he stood and turned the chair to face the room. “But however will I spend the rest of the evening?” He smiled teasingly and pulled her towards him for a kiss.

She came willingly enough, but when his hands began to wander from her shoulders to more interesting territory, she gently pushed his hands away.

“You’ve not even asked me how I feel or how I spent my day, Mister Turner,” she scolded playfully. “A good husband always shows an interest in his wife’s activities.”

He chuckled and slumped back into his chair. Her prim tone and her words were drawn from the marriage manual given to them as a wedding gift. They’d had a fine time reading each other passages between the sheets.

“Very well, then. Mistress Turner. How did you occupy the the long hours today? Embroidery, no doubt? Can it be time already to pick peas in the garden?”

She sat on his knees, facing him and clasping her hands behind his neck. “Today,” she said, “I spent hours splicing rope. And when I paused to pick hemp splinters from my fingers, I had the pleasure of a recitation from Mister Gibbs on why it’s unlucky to do so. And when I returned to the rope, Anamaria delivered a thrilling speech regarding Mister Gibbs and some interesting suggestions for where he could stow his ideas on luck.” She sighed. “And then, after the rope and the learned discourse and a bite of hardtack, I was sent to the crow’s nest to spend the afternoon squinting at the horizon.”

“Worthy diversions. Myself, I spent the day over the side of the ship, tar and brush in hand. When our beloved captain – a reasonable, enlightened man if ever there was one – decided he’d tired of threatening to drown me, he gave me leave to come below and pound my head against that book.”

Elizabeth nodded in solemn approval. “Well. I think that covers the formalities. You may ravish me now.”

“A pleasure,” he said, and kissed her deeply. She cupped his face in her hands, then moved her fingertips in light, wavy trails along his jaw and down his neck to his collar, where she began slowly undoing his buttons.

After the first few, she broke away to let her lips follow her fingers. He buried his hands in her hair as she gently kissed his pale chest along the line where the buttons had been. It was a pity, she thought, that Will had had to spend all those years in Port Royal hiding such a fine chest beneath a shirt. Blacksmiths would be all the rage if the ladies knew what lay under their clothes.


End file.
